11.18.2010

Beck Street, German Village, Columbus Ohio. The house is a favorite of mine. I drove by and noticed the blue door and holiday decorations. Bingo. The owner and I had a quick conversation. Luckily, she let me take a few shots.

I'm happy with the end result. Its been very well received by the few who have seen it in person. Some of the details: I hid the strut mounts in the frame to keep it clean. I used a vintage campagnolo front hub to mimic the holes in the white industry crank. The entire rear rack was bent by hand and fillet brazed to the bike. The cable to the hub was hidden via internal routing and under the frame with cable guides made from scratch. The thumb shifter was modified and bolted to the stem. I agonized over this for a few hours. It looked so bad on the bar with the length of cable through the air. It took me over 2 hours to file the crown "brake block" down. The brake block is a flat surface to mount a caliper onto the fork. We kept it clean with the coaster. We decided on the 3sp w/coaster to clean up the lines. The brooks tape was oiled to get rid of the chalky out of the box look. I went really old school with twine and shellac to secure the leather to the bar.

The fenders are absolutely maxed out. I HAD to pull the bike together with the Japanese honjo fenders. The client also wanted 40mm tires. I had to make it work. The radius of the fender was kept constant. Very tough. I did not notice the pucker until I ran the photos through photoshop... welcome to the world of fenders...